Category Archives: cool stuff

Runs on sun

What’s better than a solar-powered trash compactor at a bus stop? A solar-powered bus!

Chris from Port Townsend sent me a link to this post from the Inhabitat blog:

Tindo, a solar-powered electric bus, was introduced just last week in the city of Adelaide in Australia. The best part? It’s free to ride the supercute, supersolar Tindo.

Designed and manufactured by New Zealand-based Designline International, Tindo is charged by a photovoltaic system installed at the Adelaide Central Bus Station. It’s the largest grid-connected solar photovoltaic system in South Australia and charges the bus’s 11 batteries, which power the fully electric zero-emission engine. The bus has a range of 200 km between charges, more than enough to accommodate services within the city. It carries up to 42 passengers, a number that includes 25 seated passengers, 2 seats for disabled passengers, and 15 standing persons.

A bus that runs on sun (Source: Inhabitat)

Australia is, of course, the perfect place to test this technology. It might be a minute before anyone’s brave enough to try it here.

Keep those holiday pounds at bay

Want to stay in shape and reduce your impact on the environment? Take the Two-Mile Challenge and stop driving for neighborhood trips.

Props to Clif (Two-Mile Challenge sponsor) for raising awareness about this issue–and using a bus to do it.

Still riding…

I’m waiting patiently for Bus Baby to make an appearance (hey, I thought I signed up for 40 weeks–not 41), frightening my fellow passengers, who, it seems, are desperately hoping my water doesn’t break while we’re sharing a seat.

There are several items I failed to report while I was busy attempting to will myself into labor, but I only have the energy to tell you about two of them.

First, the not-so-good news:

Flexcar members will be paying the rental car tax. From a recent Flexcar newsletter:

As you may know, Flexcar has been working with the Department of Revenue to address the application of the State and County rental-car tax to Flexcar members. While we made important progress in educating the Department of Revenue on why car-sharing is different from traditional car rental, we were unable to reach a definitive resolution. The Department determined that it could not exempt car-sharing from the rental-car tax without legislative authority.

Consequently, the Department of Revenue has informed us that we must now begin to collect the rental-car tax effective November 1, 2007. As a result, you will see those taxes reflected in our invoices beginning with any November Flexcar charges. For trips using Flexcars in King County (Seattle, Bellevue, or Kirkland), the rental-car tax will be 9.7%. Use of Flexcar vehicles in Vancouver, WA, will be subject to a rental-car tax of 5.9%.

Guess it’s time to get that “legislative authority.” There’s already a petition circulating.

Now, to cheer us up:

Sustainable Ballard received 436 October “undriving” pledges at their Undriver Licensing booth last month. Here are some of my favorites:

1. Not drive to any destination adjacent to or in downtown Seattle.
2. No driving on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
3. Never drive to the grocery – even if it’s in the middle of the night. [Apparently, this person is familiar with Bus Chick’s Diet Plan.]
4. Walk kids to school, walk to work – back home. Get gear for rain to be prepared!
5. Not replace our 2nd car.
6. Not drive daughter to school, have her take bus.
7. Skateboard to Sunny’s Teriyaki.
8. Not drive at all except for one Flexcar trip on one day. Use bus + foot.
9. Commute 5 days a week by bus or bike. Bike or carpool to church and church meetings.
10. Bus to my volunteer job. Walk to shopping. Get my bike back in riding condition.
11. Ride my bike to school (Ballard to Capitol Hill) one time a week for full quarter.
12. Walk at least 3 days a week rather than driving to the pool.
13. Sell my car! Ride the bus, bike or walk to work.
14. Help my neighbor drive less by organizing a car-share. Bike to work.
15. Walk to Ballard Market + walk/bus for weekend nights out.
16. Not drive to Tacoma or Everett but take the Sounder
17. Use the bus to take my daughter to school at least three times per week.
18. Combine by errands into one trip and make more of my trips on my bike.
19. Prepare to sell our second car – carpool – and look into a bike buggy for errands.
20. Reduce in-person meetings for the organizations I work with, meeting by phone, email, etc.
21. Take the bus to: Seatac Airport, Benaroya Hall. Bike to work more. Get my winter lights installed!
22. Bike to work every day. Do local errands (<1 mile) with bike or by foot. Take public transportation to airport/downtown.
23. Run the dogs at the local parks once a week instead of driving to a farther away park.
24. Ride my bike to the library + grocery store on weekends.
25. Only drive if I am heading out of the city.
26. Carpool or ride the bus to all events throughout the month.
27. Never to use my car in the center of the Ballard neighborhood – always to walk around the neighborhood.
28. Walk or bike to school every day, organize “walk to school” month + help create walking school buses to Adams Elementary.
29. Walk 2x per week instead of drive to coffee. And bus 2x per week to kids’ activities.
30. Not drive on weekend.
31. Drive only when moving furniture, and in all other cases bike or use public transit.
32. Talk to others about the steps we’ve taken to reduce driving.
33. Speak to 6 people about the benefits of not owning an automobile.
34. Drive less and to talk my wife into driving less.
35. Encourage my yoga students to bike, bus or walk to class.

Anyone got an undriving pledge for November? I’ve got 10 Metro “ride free” passes for the person who posts the most inspirational pledge (read: the one I like best).

Indoctrina–I mean, educating, the next generation

Intercity Transit, which serves Olympia, Lacey, and Yelm, is doing its part to make a difference in the future by educating young people about transit. From yesterday’s Olympian:

LACEY — A cluster of 25 black balloons that Haviela Patino, 16, held over her head represented a car trip from the Business Education Cooperative Work class at North Thurston High School to the Regal Cinemas 16 on Martin Way.

Erin Cawley-Morse, youth education and outreach coordinator for Intercity Transit, asked Patino and her class to think about what part of the trip the balloons might represent.
“Oh! It’s pollution!” Patino exclaimed.

The balloon demonstration was one part of a new Intercity Transit presentation for high school students about the merits of taking the bus.

The South Sound’s transit authority started a new student outreach program this year, after receiving a $52,000 federal grant called Smart Moves. The program will fund assemblies and classroom visits and paid for the development of classroom materials about public transportation.

I love this idea! Lots young people ride the bus out of necessity but aren’t taught to think of it as a long-term transportation solution. (Many years ago, I happened to be one of those young people.) IT’s program educates them about the benefits of choosing transit even after driving becomes an option. (Did I mention a monthly youth bus pass costs only $12.50?)

The program offers downloadable classroom materials for teachers of all grade levels, so kids can start learning about the impact of their choices as early as elementary school. After all,

“The generation that is coming up through the schools now are not only the drivers and commuters of the future, but making choices and developing values now that they will take with them throughout their lives,” she said.

Shoot–now I’ve got that Whitney Houston song stuck in my head.

September Golden Transfer

This month’s Golden Transfer goes to Sustainable Ballard, a four-year old organization that promotes sustainable practices within its community, with the goal of making Ballard the “first US town [not to nitpick, but I thought it was a neighborhood] to become energy independent.”

As I mentioned in Friday’s post, this weekend SB hosted its annual sustainability festival in Ballard Commons Park. This year, they added something new: a fun, clever (and, I’m hoping, effective) program to get Ballardites (Ballardians?) out of their cars: Undriving Ballard. The program encouraged participants to commit to changing their transportation habits (read: drive less) for the month of October. In return, they received: support and information, free Metro bus tickets, an “Udrivers License,” and, as I mentioned Friday, the admiration of all the good-looking people at the fest.

Undriver licensing booth at Sustainable Ballard

Me, signing up for an undriver license (big coat is obscuring Bus Baby)

Unfortunately, I had to crop the bottom of this very cool sign, due to an item Bus Nerd was carrying that kept obscuring the camera lense.

Fulvio and Julia, SB volunteers and committed undrivers

Here are Bus Nerd’s and my undriver licenses, which we plan to show the next time we hit up a club or concert:

Note that I was far too dignified to take advantage of the props they had available for pictures. Bus Nerd? Not so much.

Undriving Ballard was a hit. I was impressed by the idea and the implementation, and I wasn’t the only one. There was a line at the Undriver Licensing booth all afternoon on Saturday.

So, thanks Sustainable Ballard, for motivating more folks to try alternatives to driving, and, especially, for demonstrating your concern for the earth by taking action in your community.

Speaking of Frida…

Talk about a good reason for a bus wrap:

In honor of the 100th anniversary of Frida’s birth Mexico City converted some of their city buses into “Fridabúses” — moving shrines honoring the painter.

(Source: fridakahlo.it)

Frida just so happens to be one of my non-bus-related obsessions. (Be thankful you’ve been shielded from it for so long. My friends and family members haven’t been as fortunate.)

What I wouldn’t give to ride on one of those…

Microsoft takes on Google in another arena

Back in March, I wrote about the fancy, private buses Google provides to its employees. Looks like our friendly neighborhood software giant is getting into the transportation game, too:

The Connector, a new transportation service launched by the Microsoft® Connections Transportation Program, will carry employees from their residential neighborhoods to the Redmond, Wash., campus, starting Sept. 24. In the pilot phase, The Connector will make stops in five neighborhoods covering downtown Seattle, Bothell, Mill Creek, Issaquah and Sammamish, providing a convenient, productive and comfortable means for commuting to work.

Apparently, the Connector will serve neighborhoods with the highest concentrations of Microsoft employees. From the Seattle side, this means Queen Anne/Belltown and First Hill/Capitol Hill. With the exception, perhaps, of Queen Anne, I’m not convinced that traveling from these places on a private bus (which I assume will have limited pickup locations) will be any more convenient than transferring to the 545. Of course, it’s hard to make that determination without more information about how buses will work. If I don’t find out sooner, I’ll talk to folks who ride it on the 24th, which by the way, happens to be the same day the bus tunnel is scheduled to reopen. But I digress.

I wonder how many Seattle riders will be former 545ers (crossing my fingers that ridership doesn’t decrease enough to affect service) and how many will be SOV converts. Microsoft seems to think that the program will have quite a few converts. (Certainly, in places like Bothell and Snoqualmie, which don’t have convenient bus service to Redmond, it will.)

The company’s predictions about the environmental impact:

• The Connector service will result in 20,000 fewer cars per month and 240,000 fewer cars per year on the road.
• The Connector will eliminate approximately 3,800 tons of carbon emissions annually.
• By providing a convenient option for commuting to work, The Connector will eliminate approximately 800 vehicle trips and 32,200 miles of travel each day, significantly curbing greenhouse gas emissions.

Here’s hoping.

The Big Green Bus comes to Seattle!

It appears that this will be a weekend of celebrations, what with the hydroplane races (not really my flavor, but hey), Umojafest, and a great, big bus party. Check it:

SEATTLE, Wash. – Eleven Dartmouth College students, a bus powered by vegetable-oil waste, and one monumental goal makes for the summer’s most wicked road trip. On a mission to empower Americans to reduce their environmental impact, the Big Green Bus will travel over 12,000+ miles, visiting 45 cities, including a stop in Seattle, on Saturday, August 4 from 5 p.m. – midnight, at evo.

… The bus, a retired school bus retrofitted to run on vegetable oil waste, features a NASA-quality solar panel that provides electricity, a telescoping wind turbine, and sustainably-harvested hardwood floors, and serves as a rolling eco-lab of interactive exhibits and presentations, demonstrating both cutting-edge and simple cost-effective methods that every American can adopt to reduce their environmental impact.

[…]

Environmentally-minded Seattle partners including evo, Clif Bar, Sierra Nevada Brewing Company and Five Ultimate, along with local greasy spoon Roxy’s Diner, joined forces with the bus to host a serious Big Green Bus party! In addition, to environmental education, this event for the entire community, will feature local band Handful of Luvin, DJ 100 Proof and all-you-can-eat fun (with free cold beverages)– and only a $5 admission.

The Big Green Bus team, arriving in Seattle after a looong ride

Buses, music, and all you can eat? The one weekend I’ll be out of town…

Saw it. Loved it.

My favorite part (besides meeting the man himself): Transitman’s version of the bus chick bag:

Why didn’t I think of including a flask?

(You will note that our hero is a Real Change reader.)

I also loved the photographs and the comic panels, but I don’t have good pictures of either. Plus, if I show you everything, you won’t have an incentive to see the exhibit–and you need to. It’s worth the trip. It was even worth missing the first half of the Mavericks-Warriors game.